Dominic soon knocked on the door and Loki came out only to find that everyone in the common room was glaring at him, but given Dominic was by his side they didn't say anything.
"What happened? Why are they all so roughed up?"
"The twins! I don't know how they got the passwords for the common rooms but they did and pranked everyone."
"Oh? What did they do-" Loki asked but was interrupted when a foul stench entered his nose and mouth.
"That." Dominic said and quickly shut his mouth.
There was an area in the exit from the common room that was completely covered in a dark brown mass that Loki immediately recognised as dung.
'What the heck!?'
"Poop?" Loki asked unsure.
"No, not just poop, those are dung bombs, dragon dung bombs.", Dominic explained as they stepped out of the dungeons. "It is better now, at least we could walk through it. In the morning when it was set off, I needed to cast Bubble head charms on all the students who were drenched in it just so that they could breathe some fresh air."
"Eww…" Loki whispered.
"You are right eww…"
"How did you know it was the twins?" Wondering if his potion digestion benefactors would soon be caught.
"No one knows but we can always guess.", Dominic said hopefully.
"I see." Loki walked with a skip in his step after that since he was completely free of blame and sat down in the mostly empty great hall that had all students talking about dung bomb terrorists who bombed all the common rooms.
Suddenly in front of Dominic, Loki saw a tear in the spirit world from which a hand flew out and stopped in front of Dominic's plate of scrambled eggs.
"What is that!?" Loki asked acting surprised, he definitely was surprised but not as much as he portrayed.
"That's a spirit messenger like the ones students have.", Dominic said calmly, pulling out the paper that was in its hand and paying it with a knuckle after which the hand spirit retreated into the spirit world the way it came.
"Like Professor McGonagall's Patronus?" Loki asked.
"Patronus? How did you come across that? I was talking about the pet store in Diagon Alley."
"Saw Professor McGonagall use them to send Professor Snape a message yesterday. And the store in Diagon Alley has owl and cat spirits right? Didn't know they made human ones…"
"Oh, I see. Spirits come in various shapes and sizes not just as owls, they may only ever be a hand like the one you saw earlier, and sometimes as entire people too. Patronus' are just a projection of the contracted spirit from the historical void."
'Historical void? Projection? What is this? A spell from the Fool pathway?'
"...I didn't understand that but can I get the skeleton or the humanoid ones? I think they look cool!" Loki asked playing along his part as if he didn't know any better about them.
"You could get them with the help of a professor, but it's risky to do so without adult supervision.", Dominic said unfurling the newspaper he had picked up from the hand.
"But why did the daily prophet use the hand instead of the regular owls?" Loki asked confused.
"Humanoid spirits are expensive to use, and so they're usually only used by the Noble families. There must be something wrong with the Daily Prophet owls today which is probably why they used a spirit to deliver my paper."
"What would've happened for them to use spirits?" Loki asked interested in learning more about what was going on.
"This?" Dominic said unsure, showing the newspaper to Loki who saw the news headlines. "They're probably having to deliver too many papers today so they probably ran out of owls."
[Gingotts Break-In Latest!!!]
"Gringotts?" Loki asked confused.
"Yeah, do you remember the large white building in Diagon Alley when a professor took you there?"
"Yeah, I think I do. There was that one large building dividing the street, is that it?"
"Yes, that. That building is the only wizarding bank. It's run solely by goblins. They were handed it after they lost the war against wizards so that they wouldn't rebel again."
"Bank? So there was a heist at the bank?"
"No, not exactly a heist since they never got the item they were after but yes, someone did attempt to steal from there. Dunno what though, the papers don't mention much about it except that it was already emptied before the thief broke in."
"Who emptied it?" Loki asked scouring the paper himself for any news Dominic missed.
"Doesn't say who did, who knows maybe it was Professor Dumbledore since he told all the prefects, me and the Head Girl that the third-floor corridor was important and was being protected heavily. Perhaps the item was stored in Gringotts earlier and Professor Dumbledore brought it to Hogwarts?"
"The third-floor corridor?" Loki asked, confused since this was his first time hearing about it.
"Oh, I forgot you were pulled away by Professor Snape when Professor Dumbledore warned the students."
"Warned us? About what?"
"He said and I quote, 'the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.'" Dominic explained mysteriously.
"He said that?" Loki asked a little shocked.
"What scared already? I thought you wanted to catch the thief who did all this a few moments earlier."
"No, I'm not scared! I'm going to check it out myself later when I'm free! And you'll see I'll catch that darn thief if it's the last thing I do!" Loki said with pride causing Dominic to giggle and smile at Loki's naivety.
The rest of the day was pleasant, with Loki mostly sleeping through Snape's potion classes where he brewed the potion perfectly with Hermione's help.
Once it was evening, Loki did the most sensible thing he could think of and walked to the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side of the Great Hall.
At the end of the corridor was a giant wooden door, and Loki felt himself tense up at the thought of dying a miserable death after opening the door-
'I'm sure they wouldn't put anything necessarily life-threatening behind a door students could easily access. So a glimpse wouldn't be bad.'
-but he convinced himself otherwise.
Putting his hand on the doorknob Loki calmed himself down with a thought, 'Dominic would've warned me if was really very dangerous.'
With a soft push, Loki opened the door and stepped inside.
And as he did he felt his heart stop.
A sleeping three headed dog blinked its eyes and woke up with a yawn as it stared at Loki and growled.
"Grrrrrrr"
But Loki's first thought after seeing the Cerberus was miles away from running away, instead it was, 'CUTE!!! ELANE WOULD LOVE THIS DOGGOO!!!!'
Loki walked up to the three headed dog that was growling at him and slowly placed his hand on its snout.
"Here doggy, come here cute doggy, I'm not going to do anything to you, you're so cute I could eat you! Aren't you the best doggo in the world!? Cutesy fellow!! I love you!!!"
The Cerberus genuinely confused at Loki's antics tried following its orders and growled at Loki but Loki didn't move, instead, he stuck to the dog closer and began to scratch it under its chin.
It was slow and gradual, but the dogs slowly realised that Loki wasn't the threat it was warned about and the three heads all gradually began to enjoy Loki's scratches while wagging its one large tail, creating a strong draft in the closed room.
"Awww….soo cute, I can't imagine why anyone would leave you alone here trapped inside a room. You're such a cute fellow, don't worry I will get you tasty food from the Great Hall later. I'm sure you're hungry."
*whine* *Whine*
"Yes, I promise I will." Loki nodded and continued to play with the dogs until he finally fell asleep with them, lying his head on their large warm fluffy furry body that comforted him very much.